October 13, 2010

Actually, as his "10 of you" locution suggests, his view of me is completely generic. He wants me to give $3 and be entered in a raffle be one of 3 winners of trips to Las Vegas (of all places) to meet him. That's not what I call "want[ing] to meet Ann."

"I want to meet three supporters like you backstage at a rally in Las Vegas." I don't think you even what to meet "supporters like [me]." That would be sad.

Click to read the whole email.

Ann --

Two years ago, I met 10 of you.

Just before I accepted our party's nomination in front of 80,000 people in Denver, I spoke with 10 grassroots supporters who had won a trip to meet me backstage.

I still remember the time we spent together -- because these are the people, like you, who stood with me in 2008, and got me through the tough fights since.

But we face another test on November 2nd that will say a lot about our future -- and I need you by my side again.

A Supreme Court decision I strongly disagree with has shifted the balance of power in our elections from folks like you to giant corporations. Their massive spending on attack ads could have a real impact on who represents you at all levels of government. Only supporters like you -- and all the work you are doing -- are standing in their way.

This movement has always been about more than me. It's about change, and the kind of future we envision for this country.

The folks I met backstage in Denver told me they wanted health reform, a clean-energy economy, and a resolution to the war in Iraq. They wanted a new kind of politics, and a new kind of leader.

It was their hope and expectation that together we would move beyond the status quo, that we would counter the special interests and corporate influence in Washington -- that we would do what was right and necessary for all Americans.

With your help, we have made historic progress, but there is much left to do -- and it will not happen without your involvement. I need strong allies in Congress who will stand with us in the tough fights ahead, and I need you to give it all you've got through November 2nd to make sure they can.

Your donation today will provide critical support to our Vote 2010 campaign as we reach out to millions of voters who will decide the closest races across the country.

It will determine if we pass this test, and win our toughest fight yet.
Please donate $3 or more to be automatically entered to win a trip to Las Vegas to meet me backstage:

P.S. -- Making a donation automatically registers you for the sweepstakes. You may also enter the sweepstakes without making a contribution either online or via text message -- click here to enter online or here for instructions on how to enter via text message. No minimum contribution is necessary to be registered.

No purchase or contribution necessary to enter. Void where prohibited. You can enter the contest without making a contribution by clicking here. Only U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents over the age of 18 who are residents of the 50 states or D.C. are eligible to enter. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. on 10/15/10. Three winners will receive one round-trip ticket within the continental U.S. to Las Vegas, NV; hotel accommodations for one; and a meeting with President Obama at a rally event on 10/22/10 (approximate combined retail value $1,200.00). Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Promotion is subject to Official Rules, available here, including restrictions on eligibility.

Anyone can enter, it seems. Do the "contest rules" permit them to pick and choose winners who won't embarrass the President? (Not that you would, Althouse, but I bet your presence would make him nervous.)

Plus he's cut the number he will meet from 10 to 3 since 2008. Will there be enough "diversity" in this gang of 3?

Are they really so desperate for cash that they must resort to this cheesiness?

1. Stupidly2. DOMA - why is the government involved anyways?3. DADT - a judge out in Riverside has the final say?4. The Chicago Olympics5. The Noble prize for showing up.6. Weighing in on the ground zero mosque.

It would be interesting to find out if O screens what his political operatives send out over his name. Since the evidence suggests that he doesn't even screen what pops up on his tele-prompter, it's unlikely that he looked at this before it went out. But his vanity undoubtedly gets the better of him sometimes, and pushes him to take a look.

It would also be interesting to see the drafts of the email. I'd guess that whoever wrote it had the same view of the electorate as the MadMen who issued a casting call for 'hicky' types in the WVa race. It certainly shows a similar level of political deftness.

Obama is asking for a measly $3 while he and Democrats are getting crushed by 10s of thousands of attack ads funded by the Kingdom of Bahrain, among others. But, like dressing up as a Nazi SS and reenacting murderous rampages into Hungary, this can all be explained!

I just checked my email. I got this invitation, except mine is different.

It's from BHO, to me, the trip is to LV. But, the text is completely different. And, they want a lot more than $3 for me be entered in the contest. It looks like I'll be subsidizing Althouse's trip. BHO is in favor of a progressive tax code, and a progressive raffle.

Hey, if I were a Bahrainian (Bahrainese?) I'd be legitimately pissed off at Barry's socialist engineered depression, which is wreaking havoc on that ersatz Arab Las Vegas (just like he's destroying our real thing Las Vegas) they've built on the sandspit they call a country.

You know, it is really hard to have a WWII reenactment with no Nazis. It would be like a Civil War reenactment where everyone played the part of Ulysses Grant. Doesn't work.

Obama just wants to repeat his petty cash infusion from untraceable foreign nationals, bus boys, illegal aliens etc. It worked for him during his campaign. Shooot. Might as well give it a go again since no one seemed to give a shit the last time.

Here is the bulk, no point in restating the boilerplate at the end, it's the same as Althouse has:

[1jpb]

There are 20 days until the election. I need you to go all in.

People like Senator Barbara Boxer in California, Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy in Ohio, and Congressman Patrick Murphy in Pennsylvania -- who courageously fought alongside us for change -- are facing millions in retaliatory attacks ads from special interests, made possible by a recent Supreme Court decision.

All around the country, members of Congress who stand up for the middle class are being targeted. Special interests hope to replace our allies with candidates who will give tax breaks to the wealthy, exploding our deficits at the expense of the middle class; privatize social security; even eliminate the minimum wage.

That's why I'm doing all I can, traveling the country over the last critical days of this campaign to support our allies and remind voters of the choice they have in this election. These are the people who stood with us when health reform seemed unlikely, when the banks tried to bully us out of Wall Street reform.

I need you to do all you can as well. Keep organizing, keep talking to your neighbors, and keep donating whatever you can afford.

Will you chip in $25 right now to help win this fight?

Your donation today will not just help put organizers on the ground, resources in the hands of volunteers, or ads online in these final days of the election. Your donation is a statement -- that you and I will not sit back and allow interest groups to buy their way back into power.

And, as Mitch told you earlier this week, your donation will automatically enter you win a trip to Las Vegas to meet me backstage. I'll be there on October 22nd to stand alongside Nevada Democrats and Harry Reid, one of the best majority leaders the Senate has ever had, who has played a critical role in each of the historic victories you and I have achieved. He's one of the people we need to fight for.

There are Democrats like Harry all around the country -- folks who are under siege because they stood up to the status quo. It's up to you to give them a chance to keep fighting. And if you don't do it, nobody will.

I will be out there, making the case with you. And I hope to see you backstage at one of the final, most important, campaign stops I will make this fall.

Please donate $25 to be automatically entered to win a trip to Las Vegas to meet me backstage:

DBQ:"Obama just wants to repeat his petty cash infusion from untraceable foreign nationals, bus boys, illegal aliens etc. It worked for him during his campaign. Shooot. Might as well give it a go again since no one seemed to give a shit the last time."

Both sides do whatever they can get away with. That's all it boils down, and will continue to, as far as I can see.

garage - as long as the Chamber is not accepting money from Jihadist front groups, I have no problem with it. But you still can't explain where $300 million of Obama's funds(not small donations) came from. How do we know the ChiComs didn't give all that?

Trooper - Obama does not hate small businesses. I know this because his defenders really really really insist that his intentions are really pure. So what if his actions mirror FDR 2.0? It's called creative destruction, where Obama destroys business and creates some new government utopia!

What is the % of funds the Chamber collects from foreign businesses? I bet it's less then 2%. The Chamber is in the business of defending free enterprise. Why are you shocked that they are pursuing the stated goal?

I once went all in in Vegas. It was at the roulette wheel and I put a grand on red. Suddenly I was surrounded by three guys built like boilers sending signals and shuffling their feet. The wheel slowed. The ball settled in red 10...then bounced to black 11. The three boilers withdrew and I walked away...forever disabused of hope.

I'm starting to doubt my eyes and my political instincts. What my instincts are telling me is that a teeth-rattling anti-Democrat blowout is coming in just three weeks.

Things like garage's wild accusations upthread. Rachel Maddow's on-the-air meltdown when interviewing Dr. Art Robinson. Obama campaigning among students in Madison, Wisconsin and Washington, DC. Plus other signs and portents that combine suggest a level of extreme desperation among the "progressives" who want to march us backwards.

My sense is that the Democrats will lose the Senate (51-49 in favor of the good guys) and lose 70 to 80 seats in the House.

And I'm having a hard time believing it. It's just too much.

Now whether Obama and Pelosi get the message (Reid will be gone, and his son with him) and whether the Republican leadership looks at the establishment Republicans who lost in the primaries and gets a message of their own, well, that remains to be seen.

If you send $3, Barack can buy enough food for a monthand support the local economy as well.

Please donate now, and we will send an annual phot and monthly updates about Barack.

Save the Democratshas staff in the region and is mobilizing to rush aid to soon-to-be-displaced Democrats and their families, who will need essential supplies. We are ready to provide more relief as election results come in and to help protect Democrats from further harm.

Change the life of a Senator— forever. Sponsor a Democrat for $28 per month.

Are any of you aware that the COC has chapters all over the world? Not that facts are important to a really cool, but desperate liberal rant. OTOH, I'm not so sure there are Democrat presidentail campaigns operating all over the world. No, wait...

"Chamber of Commerce" is one of those trusted organizations... like the "Better Business Bureau." People hear the name and think "trust" or actually think "government" but local and trusted.

What Obama is counting on is that no one asks what it's about and no one *says* what it is about... like garage, not saying. Only the charge... SCARY ARABS ARE FUNNELING MONEY TO REPUBLICANS!!!eleventy!!

As soon as someone has to say "It's the Chamber of Commerce" people have to think, "Huh? How does that work?" And then someone says it's because the Chamber of Commerce has foreign members and the Chamber of Commerce now gets to run political ads since freedom of speech has been affirmed, but they have these foreign connections... at which point people have to think, "Huh? And the foreign members money goes to endorsements for local politics?" At which point the brass bold claim that this is happening becomes, "Well, we don't know that it *doesn't* because it's not itemized."

At which point anyone paying attention to the last election says... oh, dear, Hypocrite much?

And then garage tries to say it's a "you do it too," moment.

But that's life. Liberals get to point out hypocrisy and conservatives get to complain that someone else did it first. I am at peace with this. Zen even.

Well the one that the Chamber of Commerce is somehow under the influence and control of foreign money is kinda a big bag of bullshit.

They've run over 8000 attack ads against democrats from the same fund they collect money from foreign entities. Just proving the larger point that there is literally no activity that can't be overlooked, or nothing a conservative can't do that won't be rigorously defended.

Can someone [Garage] how tha alleged tax break works? You know the one you get for sending jobs ocerseas. It sounds like an Urban [League] legend to me.

Until recently, domestic companies that have off shore subsidiaries could defer taxes on "unrepatriated income." In other words, revenue that companies earn through their overseas subsidiaries goes untaxed by the IRS as long as it stays off the company’s U.S. books

Ended by democrats, opposed by the Chamber. Not hard to put together is it.

LOL. Probably because I never gave him money. I don't give anyone money! I gave Russ Feingold money a long time ago, but only because he personally called me numerous times and I couldn't take it anymore. I've given money to 2 or 3 local candidates, but other than that, I choose to act directly, through independent speech. So, look out!

Any "Chamber of Commerce" is supposed to support, well, commerce. Wow. Shocking. Supposed to be for businesses and a healthy environment for businesses. We see who is absolutely insistent on posing commerce and business as the enemy. And there is supposed to be some nefarious plot involved in supporting pro-business politicians?

Yeah, businesses send jobs overseas because our politicians make sure to provide those incentives to them. And the answer is to double down and make sure to paint business as the enemy.

Obama adds the Chamber of Commerce to his official enemies list along with Las Vegas, Medical Doctors, and FOX News. And Boxer thinks it's appropriate to "trump" the Black Chamber of Commerce with failing to adhere to the proper thought allowed to Black persons with political opinions in the United States.

Garage:So it is not really accurate to say companies get a tax break to outsource jobs? Basicaally, companies don't get taxed on money earned outside the USA. I suspect that has been the case for many years but libs grabbed it as a vote-getting talking point. Reeks of their desperation.

I am of course willing to stipulate that Democrats are in favor of every possible tax of every kind. Even on the dead. That is why they are Democrats after all.

Democrats put forward many bills to help small businesses this congress. Republicans have blocked, or tried to block, every single one. But you want Obama, or the left to hate you for some reason, maybe you need another person to hate you.

In 1993, conservatives unanimously predicted that Bill Clinton's tax increase on incomes over $200,000 would slow growth, reduce tax revenues, and likely cause a recession. Instead, of course, the economy boomed and revenue skyrocketed. Then George W. Bush cut upper-bracket tax rates, and conservatives predicted that this would cause the economy to grow even faster. Instead, the economy experienced the first business cycle where income was lower at the peak of the business cycle than it had been at the peak of the previous business cycle. It is rare that events so utterly repudiate an economic theory. None of this evidence has penetrated the conservative mind to the slightest degree. Reading the right-wing press, it is exactly as true today as it was 18 years ago that reducing Clinton-era upper-bracket tax rates holds the key to economic growth.

Enjoy your little party and don't forget the guy with the hat and the number "10/6" sticking out of it.

I thought our dickhead president said to stay out of Las Vegas. He killed a few thousand jobs with those intemperate statements and now he wants to atone by having you fly there to meet him. Some leader.

Garage: That Google thing is hilarious!! Love the links it provides, very trustworthy. I am sure that the independents out there that you clearly think are brain dead will be taken in by that nifty trick. I don't like the little acronyms so I will write it out. When I saw your link with the little Google trick. I Laughed Out Loud.

Garage: That Google thing is hilarious!! Love the links it provides, very trustworthy. I am sure that the independents out there that you clearly think are brain dead will be taken in by that nifty trick

Two weeks ago, I meet a baker's dozen of you. Just before I had that 6th shot of rye whiskey. Maybe there were fewer than 13 but it was definitely more than a couple of you.

I still remember the camera, of all things, one big eye looking at me, stirring repressed memories of the alien who abducted me in 1998 in Alma, Georgia.

But now, whilst I sit in jail, awaiting my preliminary hearing and test of my aptitude for standing trial, I want to ask you to help me stand up, all 13 or however many were there. My girth and propensity for drink have sapped my strength not to mention the bank account.

Will you help me? In 18 days my reckoning will come to pass, but in the meantime, I am asking you to support me financially and physically. Somewhere a shovel ready job beckons me to find my path to glory. You and the others can help by donating just $5 each.

If you do, you and at least 2 others will be able to join me at the hearing, shouting, calling out my name and providing hope and all of your loose change in your car cup holder or purse to me.

Your assistance is vital if we are to get this country back on track, starting at the Bungalow Inn & Bar. A $10 round of drinks actually stimulates the economy and provides back $22.37 to the economy according to Nancy the Bartender. Sure, she takes from the till every so often, and you don't want to see her when sober, but no one looks better at last call than Nancy.

So ante up and join my calvalcade.

Issob Morocco

PS by responding back, you are automatically tagged for future correspondences and if I find enough cash, incessant jail house phone calls. Take a moment and share yourself with me.

I think if Obama went the county fair dunk tank circuit, he would put a big dent in that Trillion-dollar deficit he rung up. But nobody even hinted that he would spend the money on the country instead of himself. Hmmmmmmmm.....